Barb Kielhofer

Producing Director at T. Schreiber Studio

New York, New York USA

Where do you look for inspiration?
Art and music are a big inspiration for me. Whenever I need a pick-me-up a trip to the MET or a great concert always does the trick.

What’s your favorite book / movie / line from a play / pop culture guilty pleasure / cocktail?
My favorite book has always been Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, when I was little I used to re-read it every year over Christmas. My favorite movie is Chinatown, I love Polanski’s work and I love noir film so it is a marriage made in heaven. My favorite line from a movie has to be any line from Showgirls (which would also be my pop culture guilty pleasure). My favorite cocktail is a 3-way tie between a big glass of red wine, a dirty martini, and bullet bourbon on the rocks.

What play or production changed your life?
This is so cheesy but I have to say Les Misérables. My mom took me to see it when I was 6 or 7 and I turned to her during the show and said, “this is what I want to do” and I’ve been working in theatre ever since.

Is there anything you still dream of doing?
Travel the world. I’d love to just bum around the world for a few years seeing and experiencing as much as I can.

I feel most like myself when I …
am kicking ass. Metaphorically speaking that is, I don’t get violent with other people. I feel best when I’m really rocking on a project or doing the best I can on whatever it is I am working on.

What is your best escape?
Home. My apartment is my haven. I go there to be quite and alone and to recharge.

What’s the one thing nobody knows about you?
Nothing. I’m kind of an open book. Anyone who has ever talked with me for any length of time or has read either of my blogs can tell you I am a bit of an over-sharer.

Barb Kielhofer holds an M.F.A from Columbia University. She has been producing at T. Schreiber Studio for 3 years including the NYIT award-winning Balm in Gilead. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women and Theater Resources Unlimited’s Producer Development Program.

Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy

Actress, Producer
New York, New York USA

I often say that if I couldn’t be an actress I’d be a private investigator or a historian. Researching different lives, times and places is a delicious pastime and the more I dig into the history of the world, the more fascinating it becomes. I often seek inspiration in the rooms of museums, the crooked, story-heavy streets of Lower Manhattan, or buried in the pages of historical tomes. The lines that connect humanity through the ages are the lines in which I find my bearings.

My favorite book is “Les Miserables,” and my favorite line from a play is Martha’s from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, “(Your wife’s) never wunk at you; what a shame…” My favorite cocktail is a Manhattan or Rob Roy, perfect, with a twist.

There are several productions that changed my life. When I was 14, my drama class went to see the Kansas City Repertory Theatre perform King Lear. I was bored and nodding off for most of it until Edgar stepped onstage to begin his Bastard’s Speech. He stood in silence and clung to a tree as if in shock.  In a low, terrible voice he began to speak. My blood ran cold as his trembling hands peeled off every stitch of clothing and covered his nude body with mud and dirt. It was and remains the most terrifying and beautiful thing I’ve ever seen on stage, paralleled only by Mark Rylance in the last 20 minutes of Jerusalem. I also have to add Clybourne Park to the list as it reaffirmed my love for theatre. It gave me hope.

Future dream: I would love to run a theatre company that produces transformative work, mentors young artists and feeds them home-cooked meals every now and then.

Something no one knows about me? I am deathly afraid of clowns.

Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy has worked with Resonance Ensemble, The WorkShop Theater Company, Gideon Productions, The Drilling Company, Abingdon Theatre, Emerging Artists Theatre, HB Playwrights Foundation, Midtown International Theatre Festival, the Estrogenius Festival, and more. Member DGA. www.shaunbfauntleroy.com